Silverstone: Nicolas De Crem race report

Disappointing ending in the Le Mans Series
SILVERSTONE - 12 SEPTEMBER 2010. This weekend the fifth and last race of
the Le Mans Series 2010 was on the programme in Silverstone. Nicolas De
Crem, Bernard Delhez and the young Austrian ...

Disappointing ending in the Le Mans Series

SILVERSTONE - 12 SEPTEMBER 2010. This weekend the fifth and last race of
the Le Mans Series 2010 was on the programme in Silverstone. Nicolas De
Crem, Bernard Delhez and the young Austrian Dominik Kraihamer headed off
for the British F1 circuit with every intention of defending and
safeguarding their third place in the Formula Le Mans championship. Not an
easy assignment, seeing all cars in the Formula Le Mans are on an equal par
and as such the drivers and the strategy can make all the difference. Each
problem can upset the plans and the ambitions of a team. Nicolas De Crem
took a strong start in the last race of the season, but a exploded tyre
within the first hour condemned the Boutsen Energy Racing trio to playing
catch with the race leaders for five hours. Nicolas De Crem and his team
mates finally finished fifth and the third place in the championship was
lost.

Silverstone was the fifth meeting of the season, after Paul Ricard, Spa,
Portimao and Hungary and before the final meeting in Silverstone Boutsen
Energy Racing was heading for an excellent third place in the championship.

Nicolas De Crem: "For us the retirement in Paul Ricard, seeing it was an
eight hour race and therefore for double points, was costly for us, because
even with a third or fourth place there we would now be heading up the
championship. But we can't cry over spilt milk and we must now make the
best of it."

The free practice sessions went smoothly for the team and on Friday Nicolas
De Crem finished respectively second and first, leaving high hopes for the
qualifying sessions.

Olivier Laine (team manager): "Dominik set the fourth time in qualifying, a
mere second from pole, but we are somewhat disappointed. The car is good
and if we analyse the various sector times then we can see that we could
easily have ended up on pole."

Just before noon on Sunday Nicolas De Crem took the start and drove a
strong race until a sheared off wheel cost him several laps.

Nicolas De Crem: "The right rear tyre exploded and I slid into the sand
trap, a real disappointment after my good start. We lost valuable time
which we were unable to make up on the track. I still managed to set some
strong lap times, but insufficient to reclaim six or seven laps. On top of
that we have lost our podium place in the overall championship. I had
expected an entirely different ending to this season."

Nicolas De Crem, Bernard Delhez and Dominik Kraihamer finally finished
fifth in the race and fourth in the championship.